Off The Beaten Path
by Casual-Tuesdays
Summary: Everyone knows of the heroes- and even those who wouldn't go as far as to be called heroes- who stopped the terror of Tabuu, and thus ending the threat of Subspace. What about those who weren't present at the final fight? Where were they? Rated T for language.


(A/N) So this is a reupload from my old project Subspace Stories. Decided to dump that idea because all motivation for it pretty much left after the third day of uploading it. Plus I couldn't get anymore decent ideas for chapters. But I did enjoy this oneshot, so I figured I might as well keep it, but tweak it a little bit too.

Happy reading!

* * *

He had no idea where he was.

That was one of the many first mistakes about survival in the great outdoors- always have some awareness of where you were, at all times.

Wolf had already screwed that part up.

A strong gust of wind blew into Wolf's face, causing him to raise one arm to block it from making his single eye water any more than it already was. He bared his teeth and snarled- the frustration was piling up to the point where Wolf honestly believed that he was going to whip out his blaster and incinerate the entire plain he was walking through.

That would probably improve his mood slightly.

Another thing that would improve his mood would be if that _thing_ stopped following him like it had been ever since he had the misfortune of running into it in the forest 2 hours prior. The patting of the creature's feet was picked up by Wolf's ear, and he stopped in his tracks for the fifth time that day.

"Will you get lost?!" He roared, whirling around to stare down the pink puffball that only reached up to his knees.

"Puff?"

Wolf let out a low growl at the creature, a tactic that would surely intimidate the small thing. Except it appeared to be completely oblivious of his threats, not to mention beyond stubborn.

The grey lupine thrust him arm out pointing in the direction that he had just come from, "Leave! Go back to wherever you came from!"

The pink creature blew a pink spiral of hair off of its forehead, and cocked its large body to one side, large blue eyes blinking. "Jiggly?"

Wolf narrowed his eye, before jumping back and pulling out his blaster, aiming it directly in the face of the pink creature. "Trust me- generally most people would say something along the lines of 'I don't want to do this, but you've left me with no other choose,' but I'm not like most people. I _really_ want to do this and I could give less of a shit whether or not there's another choice."

He released his finger from the trigger, producing a purple tinted lazer blast to go flying towards the round being. What he expected was for the thing to start sobbing and running away, but not to inhale a large breath of air and float upwards like a balloon. The floating creature let out a high pitched giggle, earning an agitated yell from the lupine.

"Son of a bitch! Can't you see I don't want to here?!" Wolf continued to fire his blaster, but failing to hit the puffball as it released air, and sucked in more to move about the sky. "What are you?!"

The balloon shaped-animal floated down gently to the ground and smiled at Wolf while he scowled back at it. Snarling for a final time, Wolf turned around abruptly, stomping down the path towards a body of water.

"Puff?"

* * *

"What the hell kind of forest is this with floating doors and shit?" Wolf gestured to a red door seemingly suspended in mid-air on a small piece of land in the middle of a lake. He looked down to the pink puffball, who stared at him back with a blank look. Wolf returned his gaze to the door, and released a grunt, placing one of his clawed hands under his chin, scratching his fur thoughtfully.

As much as he hated to admit it, Wolf has come to terms with the fact that the round pink puffball was apparently talented at fighting (or at least _avoiding_ a fight). He also figured that since the thing was so incredibly dense and couldn't understand a word he said, when he spoke in an aggressive tone at least, that he should allow it to stick around as long as it wants before it gets bored and runs off to ruin someone else's day.

Wolf reached a hand up, about to touch the door, before looking over his shoulder at his companion. "I don't have any clue what's on the other side of this door, so are you prepared to possibly- and very likely- have your ass handed to you?"

The puffball smiled up at him, letting out a coo of approval. Wolf shrugged, placing his hand of the door making it open. A strong gust of wind was released from the door, pulling the two travelers into the dark abyss.

Wolf felt himself register the sensation of falling and looked down to see the darkness brighten up and colors return to the world around him. He stuck his arms out, and fell onto what appeared to be wood flooring with an 'oof!' He blinked several times, giving his eyes the appropriate amount of time to adjust to the very bright surroundings before surveying the area.

"Are we on a boat?"

He looked down to his left to see the pink puffball staring up at something in fascination.

 _If you're really that interested in staring right at the sun, I swear to G-.'_

"Who are you?!" A high pitched voice yelled down, and it was then that Wolf realized that the ball next to him was analyzing whoever just screamed like a little girl.

The owner of the voice jumped down from the top of the ship, pulling out a sword from their sheath and pointed it at the two. "How did you get on my ship?" The voice, belonging to what Wolf now noticed to be a young boy, yelled again, receiving no response from either of the trespassers.

"Alright, first off kid," Wolf huffed out, "If this really is your ship, then I will admit that I am mildly impressed. _Mildly._ Secondly, why the hell are you still in your pajamas when it's obviously the middle of the afternoon? Did Mommy forget to lay out a clean pair of clothing for you this morning?"

The green clothed child's face flushed pink, and he dropped his sword to the ground to pull his green hat down over his eyes.

"Ho-how dare you! I'll have you know that these aren't my pajamas, you fur ball!" His voice shrieked and Wolf responded with a hearty laugh, resulting in the puffball giggling as well.

"Sure. And I'm the tooth fairy." Wolf said, before walking over to the side of the ship and leaning over to look down at the water below. "Where are we, kid?"

The small boy frowned at Wolf and crossed his arms, staring at Wolf's back. "You're on Captain Tetra's ship in the middle of the Great Sea," he mumbled.

Wolf turned around and grinned his sharp teeth at the child. "Ah-ha! I knew this wasn't your ship. Nice try kid, but you're going to have to work a little harder to get good at lying."

"My name isn't kid! It's Link!"

"Link? What kind of parent names their poor kid that?"

The boy stuck his tongue out at Wolf. "Probably the same kind that names their kid Wolf."

Wolf rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You look like you belong in a cartoon anyway. You're like a Toon Link."

"That's not very nice."

"Did I ever say that I was nice?"

Toon Link's response was cut off by the sudden appearance of another set of doors, identical to the ones that Wolf and the pink creature had entered to get onto the ship.

Wolf chuckled as he walked over to the door. "And that would be our ride. It was wonderful chatting with you Toon Link, but I have a life to return to. Feel free to keep the puffball as a pet though," he snorted, gesturing to the obvious balloon creature that was enthralled by the waving flag on top of the ship.

Wolf placed his hand on the set of doors, resulting in the same process as before.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" Toon Link reached his hand out to stop the lupine, but he was already sucked into the darkness within the door. The pink puffball let out another giggle before floating over to the door and entering after Wolf. Toon Link shook his head and broke out into a sprint, diving through the closing doors, getting through right before they slammed shut and vanished.

* * *

"So now you're here because…?"

Toon Link's cheeks heated up, becoming a rosy shade of red. "You looked like you were going on some sort of adventure. And I want to adventure too!"

Wolf let out an annoyed groan. "This isn't some kind of vacation tour! I'm lost because my ship crash landed in the forest and I've been wandering around for two whole days! And now I have a boy in pajamas and a balloon following me around?!"

The blonde boy smirked at the frustrated lupine, walking around him and going down the path leading back into the forest. "We aren't going to get anywhere by just standing here, aren't we fur ball?"

Wolf bared his teeth at Toon Link. "That's Wolf to you, munchkin. Watch yourself. Playtime's over."

"Whatever. Let's go."

* * *

The rest of the day was spent with the group of three traveling by a lake and throughout a thick forest. Not many words were exchanged except for the occasional question posed by Toon Link, usually resulting in the definite response of 'shut up' from Wolf. By the fourth time this pattern had been shown, Toon Link had chosen to keep his mouth shut, and opted instead for talking to the not-as-competent puffball.

"When do you think we should stop for the day?"

"Jigglypuff?"

The boy smiled slightly, patting the creature on the head. "You don't say much, do you?"

"Jigglypuff."

"Is that your name? Jigglypuff?"

"Jiggly!" The pink creature cooed affectionately, nuzzling up to Toon Link's cheek, earning a giggle from him.

"I'm going to guess that was a yes."

"Pick up the pace!" Wolf called out, and the two smaller travelers began to run to catch up to him. Toon Link looked up at Wolf's face as he approached, and felt confusion wash over him as the lupine's expression morphed from impatience into surprise and almost fright.

"Look out!"

Wolf dove, slamming Toon Link out of the way, and the blonde flew off to the right of the path a few yards, crying out as he landed. The boy groaned in pain, rolling over onto his stomach to look up when suddenly a blinding light caused him to squeeze his eyes shut. All he heard was a surprised yelp come out of Wolf's mouth before the light faded. He opened his eyes into tiny slits, and then they widened to saucers when he saw the state of the man who shoved him off the dirt path.

Toon Link gasped in surprise as he took in Wolf's appearance. He was standing in bent over position, his legs separated in what's generally recognized as an athletic stance, but what was completely bizarre was the color of his fur. Instead of the usually heather grey shade, he took on a more bronze look. Worst of all, he was frozen solid.

"Hahaha! Quite the catch I got here, wouldn't you say so you brat!" A low voice rumbled out. Toon Link put on his most intimidating facial expression, grabbing his sword as he launched himself into the air. Swinging upwards, he brought his sword down with the intent of driving it through the skull of Wolf's captor, a large turtle-like monster. He was about to connect when he felt a strong force press itself into his chest, like he was being struck by air. Toon Link was unable to make a sound when he watched the world around him fade to black.

Bowser released a loud roar, turning to Jigglypuff. The puffball let out a squeak of surprise and attempted to turn to run when Bowser placed a clawed hand on its head, lifting it to eye level.

"Obviously you're no threat," he grumbled, watching Jigglypuff swing its stubby arms around erratically. Bowser chuckled, and turned to his clown car positioned behind some greenery. "I'll just toss you into whatever empty door I come across first."

With a grunt, the self-proclaimed king jumped into his clown car. He lifted Jigglypuff up again, snickering at the puffball's now apparent fatigue from the way it panted and slowly became still. With his free hand, Bowser grabbed a smaller black gun, purple streaks that seemed to glow every so often running along its sides. He pointed the gun at the puffballs forehead, holding it a few inches away. Jigglypuff's body began to shake. Bowser was unable to prevent the sadistic grin from breaking across his face.

"Lights out."


End file.
